Mangano Pummels Suozzi In Final Days of Campaign

Nassau County, New York – Ed Mangano is taking the fight to ‘Boss’ Suozzi across Nassau County in the waning days of the campaign for county executive. Mangano's multimedia assault on the Democratic Machine has been as swift as it has been effective. The Suozzi administration's reign in Nassau County appears to finally be drawing to a close.

An example of this can be found in a New York Post article about how Nassau’s taxes are out of control. (Prop Taxes Slam NY Area Hardest )

Next The Long Island Press took 'Boss' Suozzi and the Dolan controlled Newsday to task. (Undressing the Emperor )

Even The Hofstra Chronicle has taken note of Mangano’s growing momentum. (University hosts Nassau County Executive Debate )


Mangano's YouTube channel has posted three new videos from a community outreach event held several weeks ago.

Community Outreach: Suozzi’s Shortcoming



Community Outreach: The Four Points of the Mangano Campaign



Community Outreach: Q & A

Mangano Defeats Suozzi in Debate/ Debuts New Commercial

Check out the Nassau County exec debate last night at Hofstra University. Forget the fact that Ed Mangano was, by far and away, the crowd favorite, the man won on intellectual points alone! Check out the video below courtesy of Hofstra University. We're trying to get a copy we can cut by commercial so, please, bare with us.

Hofstra University Debate

Thanks to the work of Jon Hanford and Citizens for Mangano Ed has a new commercial ready to go. Check it out below.

The 4 Points of the Ed Mangano Campaign

Ed Mangano’s platform is simple: “If you want to have a county for you, for your children, that’s stable, that can deliver services properly, we have to fix [Nassau County] now.” To accomplish this, Ed Mangano has identified four basic failings in Nassau County government that need to be taken in hand and resolved.

First, Nassau County must curtail its wasteful spending. In the past eight years, the current county executive doubled the size of exempt patronage positions. These positions are highly paid, appointed, and unregulated by civil service exams, many receiving over $100,000 a year. But most disturbingly, 80 of these people do not even live in Nassau County. So not only are Nassau County residents deprived of the opportunity to work within their own government, but they are also deprived of the security of having policymakers subject to their own taxes and regulations. In addition, these politically motivated appointments are a drain on Nassau County’s resources. It’s a matter of basic math; Nassau County has a structural deficit of $150 million. Tom Suozzi spends $22 million a year with his new patronage positions; over eight years, that’s over $160 million. If County Executive Tom Suozzi had not crammed the county full of his political cronies, Nassau County would not be in its current fiscal mess.

Consequently, Ed Mangano is dedicated to shrinking Nassau County’s bloated patronage system. By eliminating a number of appointed positions within the County Executive’s Office, Ed Mangano will swiftly cut a large chunk out of Nassau County’s unnecessary expenses without reducing government services. This will translate into a greater amount of flexibility in combating Nassau County’s structural deficit. Moreover, Ed Mangano will discontinue Tom Suozzi’s ill-conceived policy of hiring non-residents to highly-paid county positions. Nassau County residents deserve policymakers who are subject to their own fees and taxes.

Second, Ed Mangano will freeze and fix Nassau County’s broken tax assessment system. As it stands today, the Property Tax Assessment System does not work. Houses are not being taxed at their fair market value. As a result, the County is being forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to settle tax challenges. Worse yet, the County has implemented a practice of bonding out these obligations rather than paying them through the operating budget, exacerbating the County’s already significant structural deficit. According to the report released by the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority (NIFA), the independent agency appointed by the New York State Legislature to oversee the county’s finances in 2001, “As a result of the County’s policy of borrowing to pay [tax assessment] claims, it is already carrying approximately $150.6 million in debt … solely related to its [tax assessment] program.” This constitutes almost 6% of the County’s total budget for its Major Funds.

Nassau County cannot become fiscally stable so long as this program remains as is. Nevertheless, County Executive Tom Suozzi has taken little action. He spends more time defending the tax assessment system than trying to fix it. His sole attempt saw an investment of $50 million in new technology and over 300 new employees to no effect. There is still the same $100 million loss. The county continues to throw good money after the bad. Conversely, the tax assessment system will be Ed Mangano’s first priority when elected. Ed Mangano will freeze all property tax assessments, set it, give people the benefit of their correction, and then work on fixing it when we’re not reassessing every year. By fixing the assessment system, everyone’s taxes will be lower and the cost of government will be reduced.

Third, Ed Mangano will end the unfair and regressive Home Energy Tax. In order to maintain a so-called “tax freeze,” Tom Suozzi, aided by the Democratic Majority, imposed a 2.5% Home Energy Tax on all residential home energy sources, including electricity, gas, oil, coal, propane, even firewood. According to the Nassau County Office of Legislative Budget Review, the Home Energy Tax is the equivalent of a 4.5% property tax increase, well above Suozzi’s own recommended property tax cap of 4%. In an act of sheer duplicity, the Suozzi political machine implemented the tax while simultaneously issuing a press release alleging that his budget did not raise property taxes. Ed Mangano calls the Home Energy Tax the worst type of regressive tax. It is inescapable. While families can choose to cut back on vacations and expensive dinners in tough times, everyone needs to heat their homes and turn on the lights. As the days grow colder and darker, residents will use more energy to heat and light their homes. This tax is going to hurt the most vulnerable members of our society: the poor and the elderly. It must be repealed.

Finally, Ed Mangano will create local jobs and opportunities. He will accomplish this in two ways: create a business-friendly environment for Nassau County’s small businesses and eliminate the divisionary tactics that frustrate large-scale revitalization projects, such as the Long Island Lighthouse. Currently, the county government has a disgraceful track record of hiring out-of-state contractors. They justify this decision by testifying that out-of-state companies are cheaper. This practice is unforgivable. The only reason why these companies are less expensive is because they don’t have to pay the burdensome taxes, imposed on them by this county. As such, Ed Mangano promises to abolish this system. He intends to start an Office of Local Opportunity in order to introduce greater competiveness in the bidding process between local companies. The office will teach Nassau County residents and businesses how to get government contracts, thereby strengthening the local job market and keeping our tax money here, in Nassau County. With an engaged local industry, more money will be raised through sales tax revenue, meaning lower property taxes for Nassau County residents.

In addition, Ed Mangano will bring in a new and effective leadership style that favors coalition building over the divisionary tactics that has polarized and stalled current large scale development projects. One of the biggest failings in the Suozzi administration is the preference for publicity over collaboration. The Lighthouse Project easily represents the largest and most promising enterprise on Long Island. Yet, despite its potential, the Nassau County Coliseum has sat idle. Suozzi, for all his huffing and puffing, has so politicized the project that he can no longer reconcile the needs of the Town with the wants of developer. He does not understand that success comes from compromise, not press conferences.

Ed Mangano, on the other hand, gets this. He comes from a strong background in economic revitalization, a background with certifiable results. When Ed Mangano took office in the Nassau County Legislature, the defense industry downsized. Over 20,000 jobs were lost at the Grumman’s Property in Bethpage. Experts said that it would take decades to redevelop. They were wrong. Ed Mangano, along with concerned residents and workers of every level of government, regardless of party, returned 15,000 jobs to that property and millions of dollars to the tax base. They didn’t need a camera or the big photo-op; they simply got the job done. Ed Mangano plans on committing that same drive to the Long Island Lighthouse Project and that same spirit of cooperation. He did it in Bethpage, and he’ll do it in Uniondale.

Mangano Hosts Community Outreach Event

On October 7, 2009, Citizens for Mangano held a Community Outreach party, inviting the concerned citizens of Nassau County to Ed Mangano’s headquarters to meet the legislator and learn more about his campaign for Nassau County Executive. With the room packed with supporters, Legislator Mangano spoke about his plans to fix Nassau, such as eliminating the Home Energy Tax, creating local job opportunities for Nassau County residents, and reducing the $150 million dollar budget deficit churned out by the Suozzi administration. This was soon followed by questions from the audience. The evening then closed with informal discussions over pizza and soda as Legislator Mangano mingled and personally greeted each one of his supporters.

While highlighting the key points of his campaign, Ed Mangano demonstrated just how much his vision for Nassau County diverges from his opponent’s detrimental eight years in office: “If you want to have a county for you, for your children, that’s stable, that can deliver services properly, we have to fix the system now. So that’s my message – our message is to cut wasteful spending, freeze and fix the broke and bleeding property tax assessment system, stop and repeal that Home Energy Tax…and most importantly create local jobs and local opportunities.”

Legislator Mangano talked extensively about fixing the broken property tax assessment system that continues to generate a $100 million loss despite the current administration’s unsuccessful attempts to fix it, including spending $50 million for new technology that failed to make any difference. Rather, Legislator Mangano discussed his own plans for the property tax assessment system, stating, “We have to freeze [the tax assessment system], set it, give people the benefit of their correction, and then work on fixing it when we’re not reassessing every year.” Unlike the current administration, Legislator Mangano does not plan to continuously “throw good money after bad.” Instead, he plans to make sure that taxes will not rise until the system has been reevaluated so that it stops draining $100 million in taxpayer money every year.

Legislator Mangano similarly argued against Suozzi’s Home Energy Tax, describing the tax as one that taxes “everything and anything you can use to cool or heat your home” including “electricity, oil, natural gas…propane, [and] even firewood.” He called the Home Energy Tax “regressive” and explained that this new 2.5% tax implemented by Suozzi ”hurts those who can least afford it.” Legislator Mangano plans to put an end to this tax if elected to County Executive.

Legislator Mangano also spoke about bringing more local opportunities to Nassau County residents rather than giving these opportunities to people in other counties, something which has occurred too frequently under the Suozzi administration. As Legislator Mangano noted during the event, “The emphasis is on local. This county, if you can believe it or not, sends money out of state [and] hires companies out of state. And I tell you, I sit on the committees that review this stuff, I vote against these contracts. The testimony there, by their own administrators, administrators that work for this county…is that, ‘Well, they’re cheaper.’ Well, obviously they’re a little cheaper because they don’t have to pay these taxes that are imposed on them by this government.”

Legislator Mangano again highlighted Suozzi’s lack of focus on local residents when he discussed the current administrations’ doubled patronage positions, noting that “20% of those people [in patronage positions] don’t even live in Nassau County. Okay, so that means they take these big salaries, many of them making over $100 thousand, and they take that money, they get in a county car that you paid for with your gas, and they drive over a bridge and they spend their money in another county. So what that means is now you lose the sales tax revenue that would have been generated from that dollar. And that sales tax revenue is a large part of our budget – a large part of our revenue.” In direct contrast to his opponent, Legislator Mangano vowed that if elected County Executive, he will keep both job opportunities and taxpayers’ money available primarily to local residents and businesses. Legislator Mangano’s plans for Nassau County include “…start[ing] an Office of Local Opportunity, and…get[ting] more competitiveness in this bidding process, and...teach[ing] Nassau County residents and Nassau County businesses how to get this business, compete for this business, and keep this money here, in Nassau County.”

With respect to Suozzi’s ever expanding patronage system, Legislator Mangano related it to the Nassau County’s $150 million deficit. He argued that “if [Suozzi] didn’t expand that office – if he didn’t expand his office – he would not be spending $21, $22 million a year more on patronage. Over eight years, and I’ll round it down to 20, that $160 million. We’re $150 million in deficit.”

He also pointed out that while Suozzi started with a $100 million deficit from the prior administration, he had been given by New York State $105 million, thus allowing him “a clean state to start off here in Nassau County.” However, Legislator Mangano also remarked during the event that despite having a “clean slate,” Suozzi has increased real property taxes by 43%, increased fees, added the Home Energy Tax, and cut down the county workforce from the “bottom,” eliminating workers such as people who “plow the roads, cut the grass, take care of your parks, especially units of the police.” Despite all this, Legislator Mangano noted that Nassau County is now in a $150 million deficit, created during Suozzi’s eight-year administration and $50 million more than the deficit left by the prior administration. Ed Mangano then reiterated his own ideas for decreasing the deficit, such as by cutting down patronage and fixing the tax assessment system, which, as noted above, loses $100 million a year.

At the end of his address, Legislator Mangano eagerly accepted questions from the audience before socializing with the crowd. Of primary importance to the audience was the Long Island Lighthouse Project. Once again, Legislator Mangano showed how much he differs from Suozzi and his failed administration. While Tom Suozzi has yet to develop the 77 acres in the Town of Hempstead that make up the Coliseum property, Legislator Mangano reviewed his own success in Bethpage, in which he worked with legislators of both parties and redeveloped 400 acres of the Grumman Property, creating a diversified property and creating 15,000 new jobs for Nassau County residents. Legislator Mangano stated that “we would be sitting in a new arena now if I lead Nassau County because [Suozzi] has polarized the issue and it shouldn’t have been done. You have to bring people together in order to achieve this type of development,” something which Legislator Mangano was already able to accomplish in Bethpage. Legislator Mangano concluded, “We want to see that development, we want to see job creation, we want to see a destination – it just has to be a destination that’s sustainable and adds value…. They boiled this down to a ‘yes’ or a ‘no.’ It’s not a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ – it’s what level of development are you going to have and who’s going to pay for it and [that] everybody gets their value…. It could be done – we did it in Bethpage and we’ll do it in Uniondale.”

For The Full Speech Click Here

For A Similar Story on Zimbio Click Here

Abandoning the Suozzi Machine

It would appear his fellow Democrats have noticed Tom Suozzi's drop in popularity and are taking the appropriate measures to save their own seats.

The Wonderful Wizard of Nassau

Politicians are known for their doublespeak. Tom Suozzi is no exception. In a classic “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,” Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi issued a press release last September alleging that his budget does not raise property taxes. He claimed that “there will be no increase in County taxes next year.” Unfortunately for the residents of Nassau County, this politician is no wizard.

In order to maintain a so-called “tax freeze,” Tom Suozzi, aided by the Democratic Majority, imposed a 2.5% Home Energy Tax on all residential home energy sources, including electricity, gas, oil, coal, propane, even firewood. According to the Nassau County Office of Legislative Budget Review, the Home Energy Tax is the equivalent of a 4.5% property tax increase. Not to mention that the property tax increase for the 2009 Fiscal Year was 4.2%. This tax increase is well above Suozzi’s own recommended property tax cap of 4%.

Moreover, this Home Energy Tax is inescapable . As the days grow colder and darker, residents will use more energy to heat and light their homes. This tax is going to hurt the most vulnerable members of our society: the poor and the elderly. While families can choose to cut back on vacations and expensive dinners in tough times, everyone needs to heat their homes and turn on the lights.

We cannot balance the budget or solve our fiscal problems on the backs of those least-able to bear the burden. Faced with a mounting fiscal crisis from years of mismanagement, Tom Suozzi has turned to the only solution he knows: taxes, taxes, taxes.

FIX NASSAU!

“The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.” Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Nassau County has a long history of suffering through career politicians. As an iconic community of American suburbia, Nassau County has long been a draw for self-seeking bureaucrats, who view elected office not as a public service, but as steps in a grand scheme of ambition and power.

As such, Nassau County has witnessed administration after administration offer shallow efforts of reform, that exchange shoddy, quick fixes for ruinous, long-term consequences. Consequently, Nassau County now faces a national economic recession with a growing structural deficit as the county relies more and more on bonds, Band-Aids, and wishful solutions to close projected budget gaps. Can it be any wonder why Nassau County residents face a crisis in confidence towards many of their current elected officials? Fortunately, this year, Nassau County residents have a candidate who offers a real plan and a real choice.

Ed Mangano is a public servant of Nassau County. Long before he was ever elected to public office, Ed Mangano was a citizen active in the community. When Congress closed the local defense plants at Grumman’s in Bethpage, Ed Mangano went to work. His efforts and ability to collaborate with people regardless of political affiliation resulted in the return of more than 15,000 jobs. It was that kernel of civic responsibility that moved Ed Mangano to public office.

Ed Mangano promises to commit that same drive to the Office of County Executive. Ed Mangano will cut wasteful spending, freeze and fix Nassau's broken and bleeding tax assessment system, end the unfair Home Energy Tax, and create new jobs in Nassau County. And, he will accomplish this without labeling other levels of government, such as the Nassau County Fire Districts, scapegoats of budgetary shortfalls. While some politicians search for a “new suburbia,” Ed Mangano will work to fix the one we have.

That is not to say that victory will be easy, but as we are reminded by Thomas Paine in American Crisis, “the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” Nassau County deserves an effective and responsive public servant; they deserve Ed Mangano.